Heretofore, a large number of handcuff designs have been proposed and manufactured. Prior art handcuffs are typically known to be heavy and include a cheek plate assembly made of metal plates which are cut to a desired shape and riveted together such that rivet heads protrude from the sides of the cheek assembly. In view of the rivet heads protruding from the cheek plate assembly, it may be difficult to align the cuffs and to fold the cuffs flat.
In conventional handcuffs, the swivel connection to chain links is typically the weakest part of the handcuff when subjected to lateral pressure.
Further, in conventional handcuffs, the lock mechanism is subject to damage such as the breaking off of key posts or pins, chipped teeth, fatigued springs, sticking of double-lock bars, rusting and clogging with debris. Such damage typically requires complete replacement of the handcuffs.
Conventional handcuffs typically only have one keyway in the cheek plate assembly such that a user of the handcuffs has to be trained to always have the keyway up for inserting the key.
Often times, the cheek plates and/or the bow of the handcuff have edges along the inside of the curved surface of the bow or cheek plates which can cause trauma or injury to a wrist. This medical injury is common and known as handcuff neuropathy. Also, the curved envelope of the bow and the curved envelope of the cheek plates in conventional handcuffs often do not properly fit many wrists and sometimes are not large enough or small enough.
Many of the above-noted disadvantages of conventional handcuffs were overcome with the handcuff design of U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,943 to Parsons et al. (“Parsons '943”), which is incorporated by reference. Parsons '943 disclosed a unitized cheek frame that is die-stamped from a metal plate, and then formed into cheek arms, which are overmolded with a polymer. The construction and arrangement of the unitized frame allows for the lockset to be removable for repair and/or replacement. The lock set further includes a keyway that is accessible from either side of each handcuff.
Despite the advantages set forth above, the unitary die-stamped construction of Parsons '943 may result in undesirably flexible cheek plates, which allows for misalignment of the handcuff bow with the cheek plate base and lock mechanism. Such a misalignment may prolong efforts to handcuff a subject in the field. The stamped steel cores of the cheek arms may be bent or otherwise damaged if misused. Additionally, the stamped steel construction requires a plastic over-molding step to provide appropriate radiuses on the cheek arms to avoid tissue damage in use.